Machinist

c. 1859

Emma Stebbins (American, 1815–1882)

Emma Stebbins’s subject here is a modern one: an industrial worker and his young apprentice. Having studied Classical art, Stebbins applied its vocabulary and material to new ends. The harmonious, balanced forms depict contemporary men engaged in skilled pursuits that wed intellect and physical labor. Like many 19th-century American artists, Stebbins, born in New York, sought greater opportunity abroad, connecting with a community of female sculptors in Rome in the late 1850s. Denied access to life drawing classes in the United States, she learned to model the human form from the art around her in Europe and from a receptive circle of artists.

Status: On View, Gallery 161
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Emma Stebbins
Title: Machinist
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1859
Medium: Marble
Inscriptions: Signed left, on base, chisled: "EMMA STEBBINS ROME".
Dimensions: 74.9 × 29.2 × 29.2 cm (29 1/2 × 11 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Antiquarian Society
Reference Number: 2000.13.1
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/154237/manifest.json

Sarah E. Kelly, “Machinist and Machinists’ Apprentice,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, 1 (2004),,10–11 (color ill.).

Private collection, by early 1980s; Sotheby’s, New York, April 1998; Conner & Rosenkranz, April 1998; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2000.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.